


Family Don't End in Blood...It Don't Always Start There Either

by kj_feybarn



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-07-29 14:01:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7687342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kj_feybarn/pseuds/kj_feybarn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mary Winchester survived November 2nd, 1983.<br/>On January 23rd, 1984 she takes her son Sam and disappears.</p>
<p>Dean Winchester lost his home on November 2nd when he was four, he lost his Mom and little brother the day before he turned five, he lost his father a little bit every day to the alcohol and the hunt for both the monsters in the dark and the wife he lost.</p>
<p>Even as things start to change...the more things stay the same. The Winchesters are broken into pieces, but there are players on multiple sides that are using them all in the same complicated chess game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue-The Night it Fell Apart

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever Supernatural Fanfic... I've kind of lurked around for the past couple of months... Trying to figure it all out.  
> This story isn't completely written, however a large portion of it is, so I will be updating regularly. But like I said... This is my first Supernatural story, and I'm really anxious about it... So... Let me know what you think. Advice and suggestions are muchly appreciated.

It was the 23rd of January when Deans world was changed irrevocably. It was late and Dean was in bed waiting, he was hoping that tonight his Dad would be home. His Dad had been gone for day. It was making his Mom unhappy, and Dean hated it when his Mom was unhappy.  
There was noise down in the kitchen and Dean sat up excitedly. Dad was home! He crawled out of bed and opened his door quietly. He slipped down the stairs trying to be sneaky, he wanted to try and surprise his Dad. He put his hand over his mouth and tried not to giggle, and stuck his head around a corner to spot his dad. He frowned when he spotted not his Dad, but his Mom.  
“Mom?” His Mom looked up at him and a look Dean had never seen before crossed her face.  
“Go to bed, Dean.”  
“What are you doing?” There were 2 suitcases by the door. Were they going on vacation? Tomorrow was his birthday, maybe this was a surprise? Everything had been strange since the fire right after Halloween and maybe now things were going to be normal.  
“Dean, I need you to go to bed.” His Mom’s voice was sharper than he was used to, but there was a feeling in his tummy that made him want to stay there with his Mom.  
He nodded uncertainly and caught sight of Sammy’s carrier. “Why is Sammy out of bed?”  
‘Dean! Go to bed!” Dean flinched. His Mom didn’t yell. Why was she yelling?  
“Mom?” His voice came out sounding small, and he gave himself a hug with his arms.  
His Mom turned away from him. “Dean.” She paused and there was the sound of a car honking it’s horn outside of the house they were staying in. His Mom sighed and picked up Sammy’s carrier and grabbed the suitcases.  
“Mom?” Something was wrong. So very wrong. His Mom didn’t respond. The only sound was the opening of the door. “Mom?!”  
“Your dad will be home tomorrow. Be a good boy Dean.”  
“Mom!”  
The door shut behind his Mom and Dean stood there confused. What was going on? He ran to the door and opened it in time to see his Mom climb into a white car.  
“Mom!”  
But she didn’t come back. Didn’t even look at him. Instead she just closed the car door. And she was gone.  
Dean was alone.  
He didn’t know how he ended up there, but he found himself curled up in his parents’ bed. He rocked himself back and forth begging himself to wake up, his Mom would be there and give him a hug and tell him that angels were watching out for him.  
What had he done? Why had his Mom left? Why wasn’t his Dad here? Why had his Mom taken Sammy and left him?  
Tears poured down his cheeks and his throat choked up.  
By the time his dad showed up three days later, Dean had wet the bed, he was hungry, he was tired. And all the painful questions had curled into a ball in his throat and he couldn’t force any words around it.  
Instead he watched as his father fell apart. Sometimes he was upset, yelling that it wasn’t fair for Mary to leave him just because he hadn’t been ready to hunt yet. Other times he was angry and determined and those days were when Dean found himself in an empty field with a gun in his hand while his Dad set up bottles. He always heard his Dad muttering things then that Dean didn’t understand. But he understood in the end that his Dad was convinced that once both Dean and his Dad were good enough Mom would come back. And so Dean did everything he could to hit the bottles, because his Dad wasn’t right anymore and Dean missed his Mom and Sammy. And every night he dreamed of his Mom climbing into a car and driving away, and he just wanted her to come back. And then were the days when Dad was drunk, Dean hated those days because his Dad would sit on the couch switching between crying quietly and glaring at Dean and blaming him for his Mom leaving. After all, if his Mom was trying to leave his Dad then she would have taken Dean with her, which meant that his Mom had left his Dad because of Dean. That it was Dean’s fault. And even if it wasn’t than Dean should have stopped his Mom from leaving. Those nights Dean’s dreams were particularly awful and the look on his Mom’s face as she left made his stomach curl painfully.  
And then his Dad sold the house they had been staying in and put Dean in the impala and drove. He left Dean in a motel and for three days Dean wondered if his Dad was following his Mom and if Dean was alone. But then his Dad came back, his shirt was ripped and he was bleeding and he stared at Dean and told him that they were going to find the monster that started the fire and that they were going to be hunters, and then, maybe then, his Mom would come back.  
And six months after his Mom left, when his Dad had drunk himself into unconsciousness on the couch, Dean crawled into the bathtub and cried. He cried because he missed his Mom. He cried because he missed Sammy. He cried because he missed his Dad who seemed so different now. He cried because his Dad had told him about the monsters crawling around in the dark and Dean was terrified. And he cried because he no longer believed his Mom, because there were no angels watching over him, and now there was no Mom watching over him either. He cried because he wanted to be loved again, and he thought his Dad still loved him, but there were no hugs and no comfort. Dean cried until his heart hurt and his eyes ached.  
The next morning, he crawled out of the bathtub and pulled his Dad off the couch and threw away the empty beer bottles. And he didn’t cry again for the next twenty years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, that's the prologue, just setting things up for the next little bit. Again, let me know what you think.


	2. When a Singer Found his Voice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I forgot to mention this last time. But this beautiful sandbox of characters and plot that I am playing in? Not mine. I make no claim upon it (even if that saddens me...).

July 1994  
“This is the Covenant Medical Center. Are you Mr. Bobby Singer?” The voice on the phone sounded tired.  
Bobby closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. He hated getting calls from the hospital. “Yes”  
“We have a Dean Winchester here, claiming that you are his legal guardian, he had a burst appendix that resulted in an abscessed appendix, we’ve begun the treatment for that and we will be moving on to perform an appendectomy.”  
“I understand, you said this was the Covenant Medical Center? Where is that?”  
There was a sudden pause. “The minor under your care is currently in Saginaw, Michigan.”  
Bobby grunted, “No need to sound all high and mighty. It’s a split guardianship and he was with his other legal guardian.” He glanced at the clock across the room, tried to figure how far a drive it was to Saginaw, and how much of it he could cut down. “I’ll be there tomorrow morning. Let him know that I’m coming.”  
“Of course.” The tone of disapproval was still there, but Bobby ignored her, she could scowl and glare at him disapprovingly once he got there. He sighed, where was John? Last he checked he had gotten one of those newfangled cellular devices, although he didn’t have the number for it, but he knew that Dean did. “Idjit…”

He leaned on the door to the hospital room. Dean was laying in his bed talking with the boy laying on the bed across the room. He cleared his throat and Dean turned to look at him.  
A look of relief crossed his face. “Bobby, you came.”  
“Course I came, you idjit, you called me.” A strange look passed over Dean’s face before the boy’s face shut down. But Bobby didn’t need to be a mind reader to figure out what the boy was thinking. “I’m sure he’d be here…”  
Dean interrupted “He found a lead on Mary Campbell.”  
“Still, you should give him a call.”  
Dean sent him a dark look. “When the grocery store I collapsed in called the hospital I called him. He said that by the time I was out of surgery he’d be there with Mom.”  
Bobby nodded. It wasn’t the fist lead on Mary Campbell that John had found, and it probably wouldn’t be the last one. But John had yet to actually catch up with the woman and Bobby doubted he would this time either, which meant that John would be gone a while longer. It was no surprise Dean had called him instead, even if only to get a ‘guardian' present so that he could get out of the hospital faster (and wasn’t that a laugh, John wouldn’t give up his rights. But what the hospital didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them). “Like I said, ya idjit, you called me. I came.”  
Another dark look crossed Dean’s face. And Bobby crossed the room quickly and rested his hand on Dean’s leg. “Family don’t end in blood, boy.”  
Dean’s head turned away from him for a moment, and Bobby heard him mutter to himself, “Yeah, not sure it starts there either.” But by the time Dean turned back to face him his face was clear and there was a small smile on his face. “So when can you get me out of this place?”  
“We’ll talk to the doctor and see what he says. I hear that your appendix actually burst, that aint no laughing matter.”  
Dean shrugged, “I feel fine.” He turned his head a little “You hear that Max, I feel fine.”  
The boy grinned at Dean. “Uh huh, that’s why you were moaning and groaning when the pretty nurse came in to check your side.”  
“Ah, my young apprentice, I bet you anything that when she comes in to bring us food I’ll have an extra thing of pudding.”  
The boy in the other bed pouted, “That’s not even fair!”  
Bobby grinned at the two boys as he turned to find a doctor. It was a funny thing, Dean could be a tough and surly kid. When Bobby had met Dean when the boy was seven, Bobby would swear he had never seen a more closed off child. But even then, the boy seemed incapable of not reaching out to other kids that were hurting, especially when they were younger. He had wondered at the beginning if Dean was trying to replace the younger brother that had disappeared with his mother.  
In a way it was probably true, but he thought there was more to it. Dean, for all his tough as nails personality, wanted to take care of people. Down deep, Dean was a nurturer. He figured it was a shame for Samuel, wherever his Mom had taken him, because he would have had a phenomenal older brother.

Bobby stopped outside the door of the hospital room that Dean and Max were sharing. “No one has the right to do that Max. Tell someone!”  
“It’s going to get better, my Dad just married this new woman, she was horrified when she came home, it’s going to get better.”  
“It’s still not right.”  
It was quiet for a while. “Maybe I deserve it.”  
“No, Max. There isn’t anything that you could have done that would deserve that.”  
“You don’t understand. When I was a kid… I don’t even know how old I was, my Mom died. I think my Dad blames me because it was in my nursery.”  
“That’s not your fault, Max, and your Dad shouldn’t take it out on you.”  
“You don’t understand. He just misses her, but now he’s married again…”  
“When I was a kid. My Mom left my Dad and took my little brother with her. Since then… my Dad gets desperate sometimes. He blames me, says that she was trying to get away from me, that maybe if it weren’t for me my Mom wouldn’t have left.” It was silent and Bobby stopped the urge to peer around the corner to see the look on Dean’s face. “So I understand. But Max, it wasn’t your fault, just like it’s not my fault. You can’t let your Dad or anyone else tell you differently.”  
“You really believe that?” Bobby closed his eyes, Max had the tone of voice of someone desperate to be reassured, he sounded so young.  
“Trying to.” Dean sounded tired, as though the trying of it all was weighing heavily on him. It probably was.  
“It’s going to get better, my new Mom will stop this.”  
“Okay, Max.” There was a long pause and Bobby wondered if he should take the chance to walk in. “You want to share my extra pudding with me?”  
“Thanks, Dean.” Bobby left them to bond. Max needed someone to care about him, and Dean needed someone to take care of. If he gave Dean a few more hours with the kid they’d still be able to get back to Sioux Falls before midnight. He groaned mentally, oh, he was getting old, there was a time when a 12-hour drive didn’t sound like death incarnate. But that had long passed.

Bobby watched from the doorway as Dean said goodbye to the boy he had shared a room with.  
“I’m going to be fine, Dean.”  
“I know, I know. But you need me, you call this number, it belongs to Bobby, but he’ll pass on the message. Here’s an address you can write me at, I swear I’ll write back as soon as I get it.”  
Max laughed, “Okay, okay.”  
Dean paused. “Max, you need me, I’ll come, okay? I promise.”  
Max paused. “You mean it.” He sounded surprised.  
“I swear it Max.”  
The boy nodded. “Thanks Dean.”  
Dean nodded back. “Don’t worry kid, you’ll be out of here in no time. No mere bone shattering is going to keep you down.”  
Max grimaced. “I’m trying not to think about it.”  
Dean laughed, “How’s that going for you?”  
Max threw the remote to the TV at him. “Aren’t you leaving already?”  
Dean laughed. “I’ll see you later, Max.”  
“Bye, Dean.”  
Dean turned and started towards Bobby. He was still moving slowly, his whole body weak from the surgery.  
“Alright, Bobby, I'm ready to get out of this prison!”  
Bobby snorted, “I aint the one chattering around like an old lady.”  
“I do not chatter.”  
“Keep telling yourself that, boy.”  
Bobby followed a grumbling Dean out the door laughing. 

“Bobby?”  
“Yeah kid?”  
Dean was quiet, his face screwed up as though unsure if he should go through with whatever he was thinking.  
“Spit it out, Dean.”  
“Dad’s been gone for a while.” He paused, “I mean, it’s not a big deal, I’m fifteen, I can take care of myself. But we were lucky this happened during the summer. It would have caused a lot of problems if this had happened while I was in school.”  
“That’s true.”  
“I’m thinking… maybe I should get emancipated next year.”  
Bobby grunted thoughtfully. “I can see where that would be useful. Keep your Dad out of trouble next time, at least they wouldn’t be able to accuse him of abandoning you. But you realize you’d have to petition a court, right?”  
Dean nodded, “I know.” He growled a little, “It’s just… He could have been in serious trouble if I hadn’t told them that you were a co-guardian.”  
Bobby nodded, “We were lucky they didn’t check further into that too. The whole thing was filled with holes, between a co-guardianship and zero records.”  
Dean sighed. “Yeah I know. Didn’t know what else to do though.”  
Bobby nodded and the truck fell silent again.  
It was nearly an hour later when Dean finally spoke up again. “I don’t want him to think I’m abandoning him. That’s not why I would do that.”  
Bobby nodded, “I know.”  
“He won’t though. Even if I explain my reasons, even if I show him why this might be a good idea… he won’t understand.”  
Bobby nodded again. “I know.”  
“He’s scared Bobby. He goes through these cycles where it’s all my fault, and when that happens he’ll disappear on a hunt for ages. And then he’ll freak out, he’ll get this idea in his head that I’m going to up and disappear, and then I’ll have no personal space for the next few months. He mellows out some then, at least until he starts up the cycle again.” Dean stopped and Bobby nodded to show that he was still listening. “Bobby?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I love my Dad.”  
“I know, son.”  
“He’s a great man. He’s a hero.”  
“He does a lot of good.”  
“I don’t resent him leaving to go hunt. I mean, I want him to, he’s saving people. And I don’t resent him teaching me how to hunt or taking me on hunts. It’s what I’m going to do, maybe for forever. I mean… I have to, since I know, I just can’t not hunt.”  
Bobby glanced over to where Dean was sitting, staring determinedly out the window as he talked. “I aint gonna tell you that you can’t, boy.”  
“I want to help people.”  
“I know, and you’re going to be good at it.”  
“I don’t want to do it for Mom.”  
Bobby blinked. As long as he’d known John and Dean the all-encompassing drive had been to find the monster that had made Mary leave and to find Mary again.  
“Well, you can hunt for whatever reason you want to. I aint gonna tell you otherwise. Some people do it for revenge, some people do it because they just don’t like monsters, some people do it because they think it’s the right thing to do.”  
“Why do you do it?” The question was quiet, as though Dean was saying it quietly enough that Bobby could pretend he hadn’t heard if he wanted to.  
Bobby cleared his throat. Remembering Karen was always hard. His beautiful Karen. His beautiful, pregnant Karen. Although he hadn’t known about the pregnancy until after she had died. No wonder she had been so distraught when he had told her he didn’t want children. He cleared his throat again. “Cause,” he started hoarsely “No matter what I do, whether I hunt of not, there are going to be monsters out there hurting people, destroying families, causing havoc and chaos. But I’m going to be putting a bullet through as many of those monsters as possible, and maybe a few more families will get through this nightmare of a world intact.”  
Dean nodded and Bobby cleared his throat, desperate to change the subject. “Now, maybe emancipation isn’t the only method you could take. It’s all about having back up plans. Now I know you have fake id, but let’s see what we can come up with for some fake papers.”  
Dean nodded, “Right, so should I look at emancipation? Or do you think I could pass for 18 yet? What are you thinking?”

Bobby hummed as he entered his kitchen. “Something smells good. You make enough of that bacon to share?”  
Dean smirked at him. “I’d tell you to make your own, but then you might forget to buy bacon next time I’m here.” Dean handed him a plate and Bobby looked down to find an omelet with bacon inside it… as well as an extra few pieces of bacon on the side.  
“Got enough bacon?”  
Dean shook his head seriously, “Bobby, there is no such thing as enough bacon, I could always use more.”  
Bobby nodded, “I believe it, I swear every time you’re here you eat me out of house and home.” He took a bite of the omelet and groaned his appreciation, “Mind you, when you cook me breakfast I consider it a viable trade.”  
Dean laughed, “You’re easily pleased, Bobby.”  
Bobby nodded, “Well, I’ve been living off my own cooking for a while now, and while my hamburgers, chili, and baked beans are the best you’ll ever have, my breakfast food is cereal with milk.”  
Dean laughed. “It’s easy, it’s cheap.”  
“You calling me cheap, boy?”  
Dean raised an eyebrow and then opened the fridge, there were a few eggs, some milk, and a few condiments. “Yeah, Bobby, I think cheap is a good word for it.”  
He waved a hand, “Well, we can go shopping this afternoon.”  
Dean grinned at him, “Sounds like a plan.” Bobby groaned, the kid was a bottomless pit.  
“Anyways, I’ve been looking into some of the laws, and fake emancipation papers probably won’t be the choice you want to go with, some states don’t actually have special court emancipation and since you move around so much that might cause problems, and I don’t think you’re looking to get married.”  
Dean made a disgusted face, “That’s for sure.”  
“Your biggest problem is that your Dad doesn’t always answer the phone, and when he does answer there isn’t always a guarantee that he’ll be able to come back from wherever he is as soon as you need him to.”  
Dean nodded. “I could tell people he’s on business for a few days, but when it’s been two weeks and he’s still not back… Well, once when we were in Iowa I had to leave the motel we were in and hide out in a housing construction site for a while.” He scowled, “That sucked.”  
Bobby grunted, there was no way he was commenting on that statement with a ten-foot pole. “So I was thinking, I can get a phone specifically for such a situation, you can call me, or if the school or someone else needs to call you can give them that number, and since you’ll be the only one with that number I’ll know that it’ll be someone who thinks I’m your guardian.”  
Dean grinned, “So kind of like your FBI phone.”  
Bobby nodded. “You let me know who you need me to be though, Bobby Singer-uncle, I can fake your Dad’s voice well enough, or whoever you need me to be.”  
Dean nodded. “Yeah. Kay.” Dean turned away from him and started washing his plate vehemently. “You think, maybe sometimes, not all the time of course, but, I mean, with the really strict teachers or something, I don’t know, or the situations where I don’t want people to associate me with Dad… I mean, what I was wondering was…” He paused, “You know, never mind, I’m being ridiculous.”  
Bobby watched the boy, his shoulders were tense and he was scrubbing the plate so hard he was likely to break it.  
“You know, you’re Dad is one fine hunter, but he sure does grate on a lot of people’s nerves. You going to be a hunter you aint always going to want to deal with the people who don’t like your Daddy. Same with how your Daddy aint always a friend of the law. Probably the same for your Mama if the leads you’ve said John has followed are real. Your Dad’s kept you real quiet, and I tend to keep my own affairs quiet. Wouldn’t be anyone who’d bat an eye if every now and then the situation requires you be a Singer.” He paused, “You know I’d never hesitate to claim you.”  
Dean stopped scrubbing the plate for a moment, and when he started back up it was with less vehemence. “Yeah… Uh, I… yeah.”  
Bobby nodded, “Now, if you’re done scrubbing that plate there are other dishes waiting for you to clean them.”  
Dean snorted, “Shouldn’t you be washing them? I made breakfast!”  
Bobby shook his head, “Not a chance, you eat me out of house and home, you wash the dishes.”  
Dean finally turned back to face him. “I showed you your refrigerator didn’t I? There’s no house and home to eat you out of.”  
Bobby gave him a solid glare, “Well, you keep talking like that and I won’t remedy the situation.”  
Dean rolled his eyes. “Alright, old man, you win.”  
Bobby grinned, “You bet I do.” He nodded to himself, looking at the boy who had spent summers in his house and weekends recuperating from hunts with his Dad. The boy who had called him when he needed help, and who was learning to trust that he’d come. Yeah, this morning had definitely been a win for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some people might be looking at me and saying "What?"  
> So let me explain just a couple of things that I was thinking about while writing this. Don't get me wrong. Dean still loves his Dad, he is not trying to cut himself off from him or anything. But it's kind of natural for Dean to have a little more resentment towards him. Psychologically speaking his Dad's hunts and searches for Mary are going to effect him differently because of the abandonment of his Mom. Plus sometimes Dean sees things differently, psychologically speaking, an eight year old who has to be strong for his younger brother is going to come out of a situation differently than an 8 year old who is being left completely alone. By the time he's 15, like now, Dean is going to have some slightly different nuances to his personality.  
> Again, he loves his Dad. But instead of a Dean who had at least one stable and steady thing in his life (Sam), Dean doesn't and he tries to fill those holes where and how he can.


	3. When a Dragon Salts and Burns

August 1996  
“Now listen here, Robert Singer, I’m not your gopher girl, and you can’t just call me out of the blue and expect me to drive to Oklahoma with no good explanation.”  
“Trust me, Ellen, I’d already be on my way if I could be. But I haven’t been able to sit up without throwing up for longer than five minutes.”  
Ellen sighed, oh the things she put up with. “And what was it that you needed me to do in Oklahoma?”  
“My kid’s in the hospital, nothing big, just a broken leg, but he can’t drive right now.”  
Ellen narrowed her eyes at the phone. “You don’t have a kid, Bobby.”  
The phone was silent for a moment. “He may not be my flesh and blood Ellen, but I consider that boy mine.” A pause, “You know his Daddy.”  
“Really, who’s his Dad?”  
“John Winchester.”  
Ellen closed her eyes. John Winchester. She had considered him close to the family once, had heard tidbits about his son Dean. Although she had probably heard more about the other two members of the family, given how passionately and unrelentingly the man searched for them. He had partnered with Bill several times. Up until the time that Bill didn’t come home and John wouldn’t face her. She tried not to blame him. Tried not to let herself stew in the anger and frustration she felt for him. But it had been years and John had never even told her how Bill had died.  
“He’s not his Daddy, Ellen.”  
Ellen cleared her throat, “I wasn’t going to suggest that he was. And John Winchester is a good man.”   
“He is.” There was a pause, “But that don’t mean he aint a right old fool sometimes. And it don’t mean you don’t got a right to hurt cause of him, and you know that.”  
Ellen sighed, “So Dean Winchester is in the hospital in Oklahoma?”  
“Yeah, the Logan Center in Guthrie, under the name of Dean Singer.”  
“He mean that much to you?”  
“Yeah.”  
Ellen sighed. “It’s a good thing it’s early, Jo and I can probably make it down to Guthrie before it’s dark, and then we can be back tomorrow before I need to open up the bar. Aint no one going to die if the bar is closed for one night.”  
"Thanks Ellen. I’ll be down to pick him up so soon as I can stand without falling over. I’ll let him know you’re coming.”

“Oh, you must be so proud of your nephew. It was really brave what he did.”  
Ellen gave the nurse a once over, she was still young and Ellen thought she looked like she was rather new to the job, either that or she was overly caffeinated at the moment. “Oh, yes, I’m afraid his father just called me to pick him up, he’d be here but he literally can’t get out of bed at the moment, rotten bout of food poisoning. All I know is that Dean broke his leg, his Dad forgot to mention how.”  
The nurse shuddered, “Oh, I understand how that is. My boyfriend ate some bad fish a few weeks ago, it was an absolute nightmare. But apparently Dean got hit by a car after he pushed a younger boy out of the way. From what I’ve heard the boy was smack dab in the middle of the car’s path, probably saved the boy’s life!”  
Jo tugged on her hand and Ellen looked down, “How long are we going to be here.” Ellen rolled her eyes, at twelve Jo was already on her way to teenage petulance.   
“Were just picking up your cousin.”  
This time Jo was the one to roll her eyes. And Ellen could see her mouthing the word ‘cousin’ with disgust.  
“Alright, Dean is in the room at the end of the hall. We’ll have someone come in to check on the cast one more time and then he’ll be free to go.”  
Ellen nodded and headed down the hall to find her new and temporary charge.  
Just as she reached the end of the hall there was a large crash, she opened the door to find two boys on the floor laughing uproariously. There was one crutch several feet away from the older looking boy and the other crutch was still leaning on the table. The older boy looked as though he had fallen while the younger boy had twisted his body into a pretzel shape. And was trying to untangle himself.  
“What in the world are you two doing!?”  
The older boy looked at her and with his back to the younger boy mouthed ‘Ellen?’ She nodded, and he grinned at her, “Sorry, Aunt Ellen, Andy here was trying to show me a cool move, but I slipped when I tried to get out of bed.” He grinned at the boy next to him, “And Andy looked pretty funny trying to untangle himself.”  
The boy pouted as he finally pulled his head out from where it had been caught in between his leg and caught in his shirt. “Well, you looked funny sprawled all over the ground!”  
The older boy, Dean, shrugged, “Well, at least I didn’t get stuck trying to pull my legs through my shirt.”  
Andy scowled. “Yeah, well, I bet you can’t do it!”  
Dean laughed, “I think you’re right, but either way, I’m not going to try.”  
There was a scandalized noise from behind Ellen, “What are you doing Mr. Singer! I specifically told you to be careful!”  
Ellen watched as the boy sent an absolutely charming smile right at the nurse who came bustling in. “Would you believe me if I told you it was an accident Miss Charles; after all I would never ever dream of ignoring your advice.”  
The nurse snorted. “Oh, I’ll believe it when I see it.” She turned to the younger boy, “Now Andy, I know your grateful to Dean here, but your mother is waiting for you and its time for Dean to go.”  
Andy pouted but nodded. “Will you come back sometime Dean?”  
Dean shrugged, “I don’t know kid, but you still have my number, you can call me. And if I’m in the area I’ll see if I can stop by.”  
“I can call you whenever?”  
Dean nodded, “Absolutely.”  
“At two in the morning?”  
Dean laughed, “Pretty sure that’s when everyone sane is asleep, but yeah, you can call me at two in the morning.”  
Andy nodded. “Good.” And then as quick as a snake he darted in and gave the older kid a hug. “Thanks Dean.”  
“Not a problem, kiddo, you go find your Mom now.”  
Andy nodded and the nurse whisked him out of the room before turning back to Dean who was pulling himself back onto the bed. Ellen felt awkward, unsure if she should help him or let himself get up by himself. Before she could think to hard on it Dean succeeded in pulling himself onto the bed. “Wow, who knew a broken leg could be so annoying.” He scowled at his leg which was covered in a cast. “I knew I should have chosen a colored cast, it’s been a day and I’m already bored with the white.”  
“I’ll color it!” Ellen looked down at Jo who was staring at Dean and blushing furiously.  
Dean tilted his head at her and shrugged, “Fine, but only as long as there is no pink and no prancing unicorns or any of that nonsense.”  
Jo glared at him, “Ew, why would I want to draw a stupid unicorn?”  
Dean nodded, “Good, so long as we’re on the same page. No stupid unicorns.”  
The nurse laughed, “Oh Dean, we should have put you in the pink cast and then let the nurses draw little purple hearts on it.”  
Dean shuddered in fake horror. “You wouldn’t!”  
The nurse laughed, “I would, luckily for you we’re out of pink right now. Now let me make one last check to make sure your leg has settled in the cast right and then you can leave with your Aunt.”  
Dean nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

Ellen was glad to be on the road again. She wasn’t a fan of staying in hotels and was more than ready to get back home. She glanced in the rearview mirror to where Dean was sitting. There hadn’t been a whole lot of talking last night. Mainly they’d found a place to eat where Dean had spent all his time scarfing down his burger while muttering about how awful hospital food was. And then they’d found a hotel with two beds, she’d had Jo share with her and Dean had taken the other bed. After Dean had hobbled around the room setting up salt lines he had practically collapsed into the bed she’d indicated for him and fallen asleep instantly.  
“So, where’s your Dad?”  
Dean gave her a speculative look, “Well, Bobby Singer is in Sioux Falls throwing up everything he’s eaten in the past month.” He paused and met her eyes in the mirror. “But I imagine you were asking about John Winchester, and he got a call from Caleb, so he ran down to take care of what looked like a Chupacabra nest down on the border. Normally I’d go with him but my passport isn’t current, so he left me to go take care of it.”  
As far as she could tell it was the truth. “So you go by Singer-Winchester or Winchester-Singer. I can’t imagine your Daddy being to fond of you putting his name last.”  
Dean shrugged. “As far as my Dad is concerned I’m a Winchester.”   
Ellen gave him a hard look through the mirror. “And as far as you’re concerned? You aint going around playing on Bobby Singer’s good name are you?”  
Dean gave her a hard look, “As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t concern you.” It was a bit harsh, but Ellen nodded, it wasn’t her concern, although the moment he started tarnishing Bobby’s name she’d give him a piece of her mind.  
“You have two names? Isn’t that a little weird?” Jo was watching Dean curiously and Ellen could see his face scrunch up for a moment. When he turned to look at Jo the hardness that had been in his eyes when talking to her was gone.   
“Bobby Singer, he told me that family doesn’t necessarily mean the people who are related to you.” He shrugged, “And sometimes sharing someone’s name is a way to show that you see them as family.” Ellen flinched, while the words were kind and obviously addressed to Jo, it was obvious that Dean didn’t appreciate her slight against his feelings for Bobby Singer.  
Jo nodded, “Okay. Can I see your cast now?”  
Dean laughed and shifted so that his leg was on the seat in between where he was seated and where Jo was on the other side of the car.  
Jo stared at it thoughtfully. “We should put a gun here.” She pointed to one spot on his cast. “And maybe we can have a knife here. And maybe…”  
“I’m not sure if putting guns and knives on Dean’s cast is a good idea, someone might think he’s up to no good.”  
Jo frowned. “What about a dragon? Can I put a dragon?”  
Ellen shrugged, “That’s up to Dean.”  
“Can I put a dragon Dean? It’s not a unicorn, and I can make it look really scary!”  
Dean laughed, “I bet you can. A dragon’s okay. That gives us a reason to have a bunch of flames.”  
Jo nodded. “Oh! The dragon can be salt and burning a ghost!”  
Ellen did her best not to stamp on the brakes. She hated it when Jo talked about the Supernatural, but she had always spent hours listening to Bill, and now that her Dad was gone, Jo seemed determined to become a hunter herself. Ellen sighed, there was still time, it wasn’t like kids ever actually did what they said they were going to do at the age of 12. She took a deep breath. She couldn’t lose Jo. She just couldn’t.

There were rarely any problems from the people who came through her bar. Most of them were hunters and knew better than to do something stupid, particularly since it was no secret that she kept a shotgun under the counter of the bar. But every now and then someone would come back from a hunt gone wrong looking for a fight.  
Tonight it was Creedy’s turn. He was already a little tipsy when he came in and Ellen would have turned him away if it weren’t for the fact that he was with Kubrick. While neither man was her favorite Kubrick tended to have a level enough head.  
She slid a soda to Dean who was at the edge of the bar pouring over his papers. He scowled at her, “I’m almost 18, a beer won’t kill me.”  
She only raised one eyebrow, “Didn’t you say you were studying for the GED? Pretty sure a clear head is best for that sort of thing.”  
Dean shrugged, “One beer wouldn’t hurt.”   
She rolled her eyes and gave the soda a tap with her finger.  
“So why the GED, you’re still young enough to actually be in school and graduate.”  
Dean shrugged, “Dad got super paranoid last year, moved us around a lot, I was missing more school than I was getting. So I dropped out, tried to keep both his and my head above the water. Figured I’d get my GED this year and it wouldn’t be a problem.” He shrugged, “Even before I got hit by the car I was planning on heading up to Sioux Falls soon, take the GED there.”  
Ellen nodded, “What did your Dad say to that idea?”  
A strange look crossed Dean’s face, “He…”  
Before he could continue there was a crash and yelling from one of the tables in the back. “I’m going to burn that fool. Salt and burn him you hear, so he can’t come back!”  
“Calm down, Creedy, it’s not a big deal.”  
“No! That fool Winchester, played me for bait for a demon, didn’t even warn me right!” Creedy grabbed his beer and took a large gulp before slamming it down. “Got me thrown around real rough, almost broke my neck before he got it exorcised. Fool Winchester.”  
Ellen glanced at Dean who was staring at the bar with a tight look on his face. “Creedy, calm down, this is a bar, not your psychiatrist’s office.”  
Creedy glared at her. “I’m just warning these good people. Aint no good reason to hunt with Winchester.”  
“Well you can warn them at a more tolerable level. But I don’t want to be able to hear you spewing your thoughts from way over here.”  
Creedy glared at her one more time before sitting down in his seat with a huff and another bang of his beer.  
She sighed and made note to keep an eye on him, he was pretty obviously spoiling for a fight. She glanced back at where Dean was sitting and noticed that he had his head bowed. “I’m sure it didn’t happen that way.” She told him quietly, although she wasn’t sure at all.  
Dean looked up at her, and maybe he saw her uncertainty or maybe he just knew better. “No, he’s pretty one track minded, he decides the only way to handle a situation is to have someone play bait. Well, I know how that works better than most.” He shrugged, “He’d probably just tell Creedy that if he’s going to be a hunter he better learn how to hunt.”  
Ellen did her best to keep her face impassive, but her heart ached as she thought about Bill. Part of her couldn’t help but wonder if John Winchester had used Bill as bait without filling him in on all the details. Part of her thought it might be true and wanted to yell and scream and rage, because Bill knew how to hunt, but he was the most trusting man she knew, and if John had taken advantage of that… It hurt, bad.  
“Well…” She paused, there was nothing to say to that, at least nothing that she was willing to say in a crowded bar.  
Dean looked up at her. “I love my Dad. Told myself he was a hero, that there was a reason for what he did and how he did it.” He shrugged, “But, much as I love him, sometimes I don’t like him or what he does and how he does it very much.” She watched as he glanced over his shoulder to where Creedy was waving his hands wildly to Kubrick. Then he just shrugged a little and looked back at his papers, as though throwing away the conversation.  
“Well, I don’t know a whole lot about heroes. But according to the nurse, you pushing Andy out of the way was pretty heroic.”  
He laughed, “It wasn’t as big a deal as they were making it sound. Andy probably would have been pretty banged up, but he was far enough to the side that it wouldn’t have killed him.”  
She shrugged, “Hey, that’s still heroic.”  
He gave her a small smile, “Heroic enough for a beer?”  
She laughed and shook her head. “Maybe after you finish up here.”  
“Well, it was worth a shot!” He turned away from her and back to his papers, but there was still a small frown on his face. She sighed as she moved to the other side of the bar. She still ached deep inside with the reminder of Bill and the possibility that had always stirred somewhere in her heart that the blame might lay on John Winchester’s doorstep. She didn’t glance over to where Dean was sitting, but she still wondered how much like his Dad he was.

“I’m doing better now, I should be able to head down tomorrow morning to pick Dean up. I don’t suppose I could stay the night and head out the next day?”  
Ellen sighed, “Really Bobby, when was the last time I left you out in the cold?”  
Bobby grunted, “Well there was that time when me and Rufus had it out with each other in your bar. Pretty sure you had that shotgun out so fast it made me dizzy.”  
“No, pretty sure it was the alcohol making you dizzy. And I let you back in once you’d dunked your head in some cold water.”  
Bobby snorted, “You had some of your patrons throw ice in that water barrel. It was a whole lot more than cold!”  
Ellen laughed, “Ah, but watching you and Rufus sputter and shake was particularly refreshing.”  
“You’re a cruel woman, Ellen, a cruel woman.”  
“I’m letting you take my spare room tomorrow night; I’d be careful what accusations you throw out.”  
“Oh, alright, I’ll watch my mouth. I’ll see you tomorrow.”  
“Bye Bobby.”  
She hung up the phone and sighed. Whatever sickness had hit Bobby had hit him hard, he’d been sick for days, and it had frankly been worrying Ellen.  
She stood up to go search for Dean to let him know that Bobby was up and about again and that he’d be there the next day. He had been worrying just as much as she had, and she suspected the only reason he hadn’t hotwired a car and headed up to check on him was because he couldn’t maneuver his leg well enough to drive.  
She headed towards the living room where Dean and Jo were playing poker. Jo already knew how to play but Dean had told Jo that by the time he left he would have taught Jo how to not only play poker, but hustle it as well. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, because Heavens knew that Jo would hustle people with an ease Ellen didn’t want to contemplate.  
“Is your Mom dead?” Ellen stopped dead in the hallway as Jo’s voice reached her.  
It was silent for a minute and Ellen wondered what was going on exactly. It was a personal question, and from what she knew from what John had told Bill it was a painful one as well. “No. She’s not.”  
“Well, then why didn’t she pick you up from the hospital?”  
“Jo…” Dean coughed, “It’s not something I like to talk about.”  
“My Dad died on a hunt. I gave him a huge hug before he left and he said that when he got back he was going to teach me to shoot. I was eight and so excited. I still miss him.” Ellen’s heart shattered at the blunt statement coming from her daughter, there was a depth of pain in her young twelve-year-old voice, and Ellen wanted to rush into the room and hold her.   
“I’m sorry, Jo,” She heard a long sigh. “It’s nothing like that, it’s just when I was young… It was actually the night before my fifth birthday. I went downstairs and my Mom was there with my younger brother. She told me to go to bed… and then she just walked out the door. Didn’t even turn around when I called for her.” The was a bitter edge to his voice and Ellen shuddered. All she had ever known was that Mary Winchester nee Campbell had left, it was hard to imagine any mother doing that in the face of a toddler calling out to her.  
It was silent for a while before Jo spoke again. “I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have asked.”  
“No… it’s okay. I mean, it’s not okay. But I’m not mad or anything.” A sigh, “I know what you mean when you say you miss your Dad. But honestly, I don’t anymore. I miss the idea of a Mom. But I… I don’t miss my Mom, whatever her reasons were, she still left me, I was alone in our house for three days before my Dad showed up, and I’ve been alone a lot since then. And a lot of that’s on her. Your Dad would have come back if he could. My Mom… well, she could and she hasn’t.”  
“You can share my Mom if you want. She’s real good at being a Mom. Tucks me into bed, braids my hair, she even tells me stories sometimes.” Ellen bit her lip as her eyes started welling with tears. Heaven knew she wasn’t a crier, but the pain in Dean’s voice plus the certainty in her daughter’s… it hit a spot deep inside her.  
Dean laughed, “I’m not sure Moms work like that.”  
Ellen heard Jo give an imperious sounding snort, “My Mom does. Plus, once she’s your Mom too, that’ll make you my brother, and that means you can teach me how to shoot. Mom’s taught me a little bit, but I don’t think she wants to teach me much more.”  
There was a small laugh, “Oh, I see how it is, you just want me for my slave labor.”  
There was a squeal and then a burst of laughter and when Ellen peaked around the corner she saw Dean up on his one good leg tickling Jo. She stared at the two for a second and then turned away. She’d talk to Dean later. But right now she was going to drink a glass of whiskey, curse Mary Campbell and John Winchester a few times, and then she was going to call Bobby and figure out Dean’s favorite meals. She wasn’t the boy’s mother, but she was a mother, and there was no one better at taking care of hurt souls than a mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, another chapter come and gone... Let me know what you think! Suggestions? Comments? Advice? All welcome!


	4. When the Car Ganks the Ghost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are now officially within the beginning of the Show. Hopefully I did okay. This was a lot harder to write than I thought it'd be.

October/November 2005

“Dude, as soon as I’m done checking this out I’ll come by and then I will absolutely waste you in whatever game you choose.”  
“I thought you were going to come up once you were done with that voodoo thing in New Orleans. How’d that go anyways?” Dean grinned slightly at the thought of the hunt in New Orleans, it hadn’t been pretty, but wow had Madame Odilia made one delicious pie.  
“Oh, well enough, Madame Odilia owes me one. Turns out that most of the things going wrong were some jerk’s attempts to get rid of the competition. Madame Odilia herself wasn’t doing anything wrong, so I just stopped the jerk, and she told me if I ever needed a favor to call her up.”  
“Dude. Was she hot?”  
Dean snorted, “She’s seventy years old. But if you want I can try and set you up with her. I mean, she could probably still outdrink you anyways, it could be a good match.”  
“Really, man?”  
“What, not interested?”  
“Why haven’t you saved any hot chicks lately? Now those, I would be interested in.” Dean shook his head; he could practically hear the failed leer in Ash’s voice.  
“Dude, I’m the one doing the saving, why would I set you up with them after doing all the work?”  
“Because Man, without me you would be so sunk, I mean, who does all your hacking for you? Who makes you the best fake ids? Who has a replica of you GED right next to their High School Diploma and MIT acceptance letter? Who absolutely wastes you in all games electronic, and despite the ease with which I beat you is still willing to play with you?”  
Dean paused, surprised, “Why do you have a copy of my GED?”  
“Oh, Mama Ellen has yours put away with Jo’s and my Diplomas in her keepsake drawer, so I took a copy of all of them and made a piñata. But they’re still together, so it so counts.”  
Dean cleared his throat, it was still strange the things the Harvelle’s did for him. “You have a piñata and we’ve never smacked it around with a bat? Come on, Ash, you’re holding out on me.”  
“Well, if you were coming home than maybe I’d let you hit it with a bat, or shoot it, or whatever it is you do with piñatas, but no, your going from New Orleans to California and you couldn’t even be bothered to stop and say hi on the way.”  
Dean bit his lip, he had wanted to stop by, but he had a gut feeling that something was going on with his Dad. “I showed you the message my Dad left me and he hasn’t answered his phone since, there’s something wrong.”  
“Isn’t he always pulling the disappearing act?”  
“It’s different this time, my Dad has his patterns, honestly I was expecting him to call me pretty soon and ask me to meet up and then I expected him to get blazingly drunk a few weeks before my birthday and then he’d disappear for a while. Like clockwork.”  
“Fine. I think it’s ridiculous, but you know him better than I do.”  
“Ash, you’ve never even met my Dad.”  
“I know your Dad plenty well. I don’t know John at all.” There was a faint hint of disapproval in Ash’s voice and Dean winced.  
“He’s still my Dad.”  
Ash sighed, “I know. Bobby knows. Jo knows. Ellen knows. We all know. We’re your family and he’s your Dad. Which is why we aren’t hurt when you hardly contact us for three months because your Dad starts getting paranoid that you’ll leave him and he’ll be alone, despite the fact that we know and you know that he’ll, as you say, ‘get blazingly drunk and disappear’.”  
Dean sighed heavily, “Ash.”  
“No, Sorry, I’m drunk. I understand, my parents were jerks and I stuck it out with them even then, I told you how I lost it when they were killed. It’s just every time he leaves I watch you get this sad face, and it’s no fun destroying you in Halo.”  
“I’m just going to check this out, and then I’ll be back and you can do your best to take me down in Halo.”  
“Fine, fine. Don’t forget to call Mama Ellen.” Dean couldn’t help the faint smile that crossed his face at the moniker. It had started as a joke between him and Jo, but now it was the unofficial title he and Ash used for Ellen.  
“Yeah, yeah, I learned my lesson the first time I forgot to call. Her and Jo had me running myself to the bone for weeks.”  
“See ya soon, Dean.”  
“I’ll see you, Ash.”  
Dean hung up, and sighed. It was a 33-hour drive from New Orleans to Jericho and driving through Nebraska would have added another seven, but he was still a little sad that he didn’t have the chance to drop by for a bit. He gave the steering wheel of his baby a fond pat and she purred underneath him.  
He yawned, he still had another twelve hours to drive, but there was no way he’d make it straight through. It was going to be a nap in the backseat of the impala before pulling out early tomorrow morning. He groaned inwardly, he loved his baby, but sleeping in her backseat was never going to be his favorite way to spend the night.

Dean grinned as he left the police site, it never got old pretending to be some official, when in reality he was a 26-year-old ghost hunter living out of his car. There were days when he felt like there was a neon sign pointing and flashing that he was crazy, but all he had to do was flash a badge and no one even noticed the signs.  
He parked the car and headed towards where he had seen the motel, he stopped as he noticed a young woman putting up flyers. He headed over, “Hey, are you Amy?”  
She glanced at him before focusing on her flyers, “Yeah.”  
“Yeah, Troy told me about you, I’m his cousin, from out in Nebraska.”  
“He never mentioned you to me.”  
Dean laughed, “Well, that about sums up our relationship, our moms want us to try and connect so me and my mom flew out, mostly I think my Mom just wanted to spend time in California, she isn’t even in Jericho yet, just sent me on when we heard that Troy went missing. I was just wondering if you could tell me what happened.”  
Amy sighed quietly, “Yeah, I can do that. Mind you, it’s not much.”  
He nodded, “Hey, why don’t we go sit in the diner and I’ll get you some coffee. I know how tough it is when the people you love disappear.”  
She nodded and he led her to the diner he had just passed and ordered her some coffee, he considered the pie, but figured that might look a little insensitive.  
He sat down across from her as she took her seat. “So what happened?”  
“I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and… he never did.”  
“But he didn’t say anything strange? Didn’t sound like he was scared?” He fiddled with the packet of salt on the counter and slid it into his jacket pocket.  
She shook her head, “No, at least I don’t remember if he did. It was late, I was a little out of it, I just wanted him to come by and he said that he had work the next day, and then suddenly he said he’d call me back.”  
“It’s just, I mean, my Mom is always going on about how responsible Troy is, how I should be more like him, and Jericho isn’t exactly a dangerous place. I just feel like something’s not right. I mean, is there anything at all that you might have heard? Even something a little crazy?”  
Amy hesitated, “Well, it’s just… It’s crazy.”  
“No, no, the police are going to follow every sensible option they’ve got, I’m his cousin, I’m his family. I’ll take the crazy.”  
“It’s just with all these guys going missing, people talk.”  
“What do they talk about?”  
“It’s kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago. And well, some people say that she’s still out there. That she hitchhikes and that whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever.”  
Dean nodded. “Thanks, Amy. Don’t worry, someone’s going to figure this all out.”  
Another girl walked up to the booth, “Hey Amy, you doing okay?” And Dean took that as a sign to get going. He had research to do.

The whole thing was whacked. If his Dad had been here then he hadn’t finished up, and Dean had never known his Dad to just leave a hunt undone, at least not if there was no one there as backup to finish it on their own. Of course it was possible that his Dad had known he would follow him out here after that message and he was supposed to finish it off. But someone had died sometime between when his Dad had disappeared and when had shown up, and he didn’t want to think that whatever his Dad was up to had led to someone dying. Of course, it was possible that his Dad thought it was finished.  
He sighed as he remembered the room his Dad had been staying in. It was a mess; his dad didn’t just leave things like this. It was like an itch on the back of his neck, something was wrong here.  
And it was more than just Constance Welch (how dare that ghost try and drive his baby). And while there was no doubt in his mind that he was going to gank her, it still bothered him that his Dad hadn’t.  
He sighed, really, had the police needed to arrest him just as he was about to go get food? Was it against some police code to bring their suspects food?  
And Ash told him that his fake ids were flawless, tell that to the deputies.  
He looked up as Sheriff Pierce walked in with a large box. He raised his eyebrows at the man. It was always fun to get a rise out of the cops.  
“So you want to give us your real name?”  
“I told you, it’s Nugent. Ted Nugent.”  
“I’m not sure you realize just how much trouble you’re in here.” Dean stopped himself from rolling his eyes, because yeah, he was pretty sure he knew exactly how much trouble he was in here. He gave a mental plea that Ellen didn’t find out about this.  
“We talkin’, like, misdemeanor kind of trouble, or, uh, squeal like a pig trouble?”  
“You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall. Along with a whole lot of Satanic mumbo-jumbo. Boy, you are officially a suspect.” He wondered whether it would hurt his case to mention that he’d broken into that room and it wasn’t actually his. Probably shouldn’t.  
“That makes sense. Because when the first one went missing in ’82, I was three.”  
The sheriff shrugged it off, “I know you’ve got partners. One of ‘em’s an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing. So tell me Dean…” Dean kept his face impassive at the use of his name “This his?” With a thud a journal landed in front of him.  
There was a strange pain in his stomach, and it reminded him a little of the days before his appendix burst with the intensity with which it hit him. His Dad’s journal was in front of him. Meaning his Dad left it there on purpose. Which meant he intended for Dean to find it, but not him. Dad left. Intentionally.  
The sheriff was talking still, flipping open the journal until it landed on a page with his name on it and the coordinates 35-111.  
There was another jab of pain. His Dad left, intentionally. And this time, more than any other time his Dad left, he felt abandoned.

When the Sheriff finally locked him in the room for the night it takes Dean a minute to get moving. He’d taken one of the paper clips from his dad’s journal during one of the Sheriff’s rambling questions. He quickly unlocked himself and slipped out the door. It only took a minute to grab his Dad’s journal from the evidence locker and then he was gone. Sparing only a minute to be grateful that there were no real cells in the office, because those would have been a real pain to unlock.  
He sighed and ran to the motel to grab the Impala, it was a lucky break, because the police should have taken his car and they should have searched it. And then he would have been in a lot more trouble. He couldn’t stay at the hotel, that was for sure. He climbed into the impala and rested his head on the wheel for just a minute.  
“Hey baby, you’re still here aren’t you. You haven’t abandoned me. I even forgive you for letting that Constance girl drive you.”  
He turned the key and let the rumble of the car soothe him, right now was not the time to be feeling sorry for himself.  
He pulled the impala out of the parking lot. It was time to go gank a ghost.

Dean groaned as the woman flickered from the shotgun seat of his baby. He couldn’t believe she had driven his baby, not once, but twice. Seriously, that was nine kinds of messed up.  
“Hold me, I’m so cold.”  
“Yeah, you messed with my baby, not a chance.”  
With a flicker Constance was gone and then back, pushing his seat back and straddling him. Wow, if she was alive and not a murderess she would have been hot.  
“You can’t kill me. I don’t have anyone to be unfaithful too.” And isn’t that a sad way to put it. But his longest relationship was a month and the woman kicked him out and called him nuts.  
For a second she paused and Dean slid his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the salt packet from the diner, but then Constance thrust her hand into his chest and all he knew was pain. Her freaking hand was inside his freaking chest, and his heart was getting torn out.  
He ripped open the salt packet and it splattered onto Constance and she disappeared. He knew that this would only have a few moments of reprieve, his mind was whirring through possible plans that he discarded as soon as he thought of them. He felt the temperature start to drop and knew she was coming back. He gritted his teeth and threw himself forward; the brat couldn’t go home? Well, he’d take her home.  
He slammed on the gas and crashed through the side of the house. He gasped for a second before he looked out the window to see Constance standing there staring at a picture of her and two kids. He tumbled out of the car and scrambled to the trunk of the car, keeping the body of the impala between him and Constance. A nearly empty packet of salt wasn’t going to keep her away for long.  
“You’ve come home to us, Mommy.”  
Dean jerked a shotgun out of the trunk in time to watch as two kids flickered into existence behind Constance, and then with a shrieking wail all three of them disappeared. He groaned, that seemed so anti-climatic, he hadn’t even had a chance to shoot her. He let his hands run over the Impala. “Sorry, baby, didn’t mean to hurt you, but hey, you pretty much ganked this one for me. I mean literally all I did was throw salt on her.” He snorted at the thought.  
He climbed back into the car and reversed her out, flinching at the sounds of wood on metal. He’d have to go up to Bobby’s after he stopped by Ellen’s.  
He hesitated. His Dad was still missing, but the only clue Dean had was a set of coordinates, but Dean was pretty sure his Dad wasn’t there. He pulled the car over to the side of the road and pulled out a map and a ruler. Colorado. Well, that was between here and Nebraska. He sighed. Ellen was going to want to strangle him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow... Um, yeah, I went through and tried to fix grammar and what not. I probably missed a couple of things. Whoops.  
> As always comments and constructive criticism would be much appreciated.  
> I hope this chapter was okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, that's the prologue, just setting things up for the next little bit. Again, let me know what you think.


End file.
